Social Identity of Objects

ABSTRACT

A system enabling a registered user of an SIO database to instantiate and edit characteristics of objects has an SIO base module adapted to interact with the user in instantiating and editing objects, an SIO search module, an SIO input module, an SIO database, and an SIO template database. The base module enables the user to conduct a search of the SIO database with the search module and guides the user in instantiating and editing characteristics of objects.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation-in-Part (CIP) application ofand claims priority to co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 16/787,385filed 11 Feb. 2020, which is a CIP of U.S. application Ser. No.15/080,028 filed 24 Mar. 2016, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,594,831 on17 Mar. 2020, which claims priority to provisional application62/138,666 filed Mar. 26, 2015. All disclosure of the prior applicationsis incorporated herein at least by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the technical area of information managementand pertains more specifically to apparatus and methods for creating asocial identity for an object or a collection of objects, andassociating that object in a comprehensive information system withspecific persons and descriptive and contextual information.

2. Description of Related Art

The Internet network is well-known, and comprises a great number ofnetwork nodes, each typically coupled to specific functionality andinformation. There exist and are well-known as well, browserapplications that enable persons through the use of computerizedappliances to search for nodes according to specific search criteria,and to connect to and interact with individual nodes, includingdownloading of information in repositories coupled to the nodes.Applications and systems exist in the art as well for individuals tocreate nodes in the Internet network, commonly referred to as web sites.

A relatively new concept in the Internet network is known as theInternet of Things, referred to as IoT. In the IoT individual apparatusmay be enabled as nodes in the network by implementing networkcommunication hardware and software in such apparatus, and the apparatusand its communication subsystem may have an IP Address.

Having an IP address is not a new concept for an apparatus, as this isquite common for network capable devices like computers and routers. Butin the IoT the nodes are such as automobiles, other vehicles,refrigerators, TV sets, and much more. A commonality among the “things”in the Internet of Things, is that the things are enabled to connect tothe Internet network.

It has occurred to the present inventors that the node concept may beextended far beyond the IoT concept in a non-obvious way. In the IoTeach apparatus or entity that is enabled as a node may be described as anoun, a refrigerator for example. An important object in the IoT is thatthe nodes are interactive in the Internet network. That is, one mayassociate all appliances in her home as IoT nodes, and may exerciseconsiderable interaction and control throughout the population ofappliances. But other than being, for example, a refrigerator or a spafilter, there is no rich contextual information and association. Thereis little if any motivation in the IoT to represent a book, a guitar, asettee, a stagecoach, an article of clothing, ad infinitum, as nodes ina network with specific identification. The present inventors haveimagined that assigning unique ID to such objects and assemblies ofobjects opens a door to rich contextual association among the objects,history of the objects in association with living and formerly livingpeople, stories about the objects and the people in association, andmuch more. Objects, by functionality of the system, are enhanced withpersonality.

In the Detailed Description of this invention below, through specificexamples and embodiments, the inventors describe a new and unique systembased on Social Identity of Objects.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment of the invention a system enabling a registered userof an SIO database to instantiate and edit characteristics of objects isprovided, comprising an SIO base module adapted to interact with theuser in instantiating and editing objects, an SIO search module, an SIOinput module, an SIO database, and an SIO template database. The basemodule enables the user to conduct a search of the SIO database with thesearch module and guides the user in instantiating and editingcharacteristics of objects.

In one embodiment of the invention the SIO template database comprises aplurality of templates specifically associated with different categoriesof objects and guides the user in a serial process of filling inputfields of the template with information regarding characteristics of theobject. Also, in one embodiment the input template, after all fields arefiled, enters the information associated with the object in the SIOdatabase. And in one embodiment the system is organized as a Socratesdatabase.

In another aspect of the invention a method enabling a registered userof an SIO database to instantiate and edit characteristics of objects isprovided, comprising initiating by the registered user an SIO basemodule adapted to interact with the user in instantiating and editingobjects, interacting with the base module by the registered user,conducting a search of the SIO database by the registered use with theSIO search module, identifying an object and characteristics of theobject to be edited, selecting by an input module an input template froman SIO template database, that best matches characteristics of theidentified object, prompting the registered user to fill out fields inthe template, and entering the information from the fields in thetemplate into the SIO database, associated with the identified object,after the last field is filled. The method is organized in one instanceas a Socrates database.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a simple architectural diagram illustrating one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for socialinstantiation of an object in an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram demonstrating how instantiated objects may berelated (associated) in an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating architecture and functionality in yetanother embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram similar to that of FIG. 4 as more specific exampleof instantiation in an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of how the system may tie SIO codestogether in a virtual world in an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a drawing showing a potential hierarchical system of SIOs inboth the real world and a virtual world in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 9 illustrates how the system in an embodiment of the invention canpotentially tie SIO codes of different families living in a specifichome over a period of time.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a complex object having an SIO code showing howone SIO code can resolve into many SIO codes.

FIG. 11 illustrates a Social Identity of Objects Input System.

FIG. 12 illustrates a SIO Base Module in an embodiment of the system.

FIG. 13 illustrates a SIO Input module in an embodiment of the system.

FIG. 14 illustrates a SIO Template Database in an embodiment of thesystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In an embodiment of the invention an object embodying some level ofintrigue or importance to one or more persons is registered(instantiated) with a service of the invention, the object receiving aunique code printable or otherwise displayable on the object or on asticker or identifier placed on, in or otherwise associated with theobject being registered. As will become clear in further descriptionbelow, some objects may be so very well-known that there would be noneed to physically associate the object with a physical indicia of theunique code associated with the object. For example, the city ofWashington, D.C. is so well-known that it would never be confused withanother city, so, if the City of Washington D.C. were to be instantiatedas an object in an embodiment of the invention, the city would beassigned a unique code, but it would not be necessary (nor indeedpossible) to affix a sticker or other physical indicia to the city.

The code in embodiments of this invention is henceforth termed an SIOcode. The SIO code may be machine-readable and may in some embodimentsbe captured using an imaging mechanism of a mobile telephone forexample. In one embodiment the code may be used to retrieve informationabout the object over the Internet network, including associations withpersons, with other objects, with stories, with time windows, and with abroad variety of other criteria. The code may be embodied to betransferrable in a bar code or a QR code.

In one embodiment of the invention it is important that the code beunique to the particular object with which it associated, and given thepotential number of objects that might be identified in this way, thecode needs to be of a nature that a very large number of differentunique codes may be generated.

One way such codes may be generated and used is simply by a binarystring of sufficient length. An example is the 128-bit nature of IPV6code now used for Internet IP addresses. A 128-bit binary sequenceprovides 2¹²⁸ unique designations. This is340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 designations. Thisis 2⁵² addresses for every observable star in the known universe, or 2⁹⁵addresses for each of the about 6.5 billion persons alive today. This isenough to assign a unique address to every atom on the surface of theEarth, with enough left over to do every atom on another 100+planets.This should be enough.

It is not, of course, necessary that a 128-bit binary number be readablesomehow from an object tagged with one such number. The bit sequencemay, of course, be rendered by use of hexadecimal notation, as it is inIPV6, or in any of several other ways to be a much shorter and lesscomplicated rendition, perhaps by scientific notation, for example,which may, upon entry of capture, be translated in any other convenientway. There are many shorthand ways of expressing large numbers, and anyand all may be useful in embodiments of the invention. It is importantthat the code be unique and that it be associated with a single objector entity, and that it be embodied in a way that is easy to captureand/or enter into an Internet-capable device.

At this point it is important to understand that an object associatedwith a code in an embodiment of the invention need not be an atomicobject, as in the case of the city of Washington, D.C. mentioned above.The coded object may be composed of many other objects, which may eachbear or be uniquely associated with (or not) an SIO code. As a simpleexample, consider the Empire State Building in New York City. For thatmatter, consider New York City as an example, and the Empire StateBuilding as a lower hierarchical component of New York City. One or bothmay be assigned an SIO code. Further, many other buildings (andstreetlamps) in New York City may be tagged with an SIO code. Differentfloors of the Empire State Building may be uniquely tagged as well, andthousands of other objects in the Empire State Building may be uniquelytagged.

In this grand scheme of things, the skilled person will see that the SIOcodes may be nested in a hierarchical scheme such that codes recorded inmemory in a system of the invention may be associated hierarchically ina parallel manner to the manner that the real objects are associated inthe real world. And it should be noted that the word “objects” in thissense is used in a broad context, so buildings and battleships, forexample, may be objects with an SIO code, and components of thebuildings and battleships may have separate unique SIO codes. It isintended in one embodiment that any object entity that has mass may be acandidate for an SIO code. In some embodiments of the inventionprovision is made for SIO codes assigned to virtual entities, that is,to ideas that have no mass, but are instantiable in the minds of personswho may avail themselves of services of the invention.

An example of a virtual entity might be the Angel Gabriel. The idea ofthe angel is not known in the annals of science to be a specific objecthaving mass and occupying space, but is most certainly an entity thatmay be invested with characteristics and qualities in the minds of humanbeings. In an embodiment of the invention allowance is made for suchentities, which may be instantiated with SIO codes, and associated withpersons, belief systems, religious organizations, time windows inhistory, stories provided by members of a service in an embodiment ofthe invention, and more.

FIG. 1 is a simple architectural diagram illustrating one embodiment ofthe invention. An object 103 is illustrated in FIG. 1 and represents oneof a very large number of objects that may be uniquely associated with(instantiated by) an SIO code in embodiments of the present invention,in the broad sense of objects as described above. A mobile communicationdevice 101 having an image-capturing capability may be used in variousembodiments and is shown in this representation as imaging object 102 inimage field 102. Mobile device 101 may be, for example, a cellulartelephone, a pad device, or any other mobile, computerized device thatincorporates image capture. Device 101 is enabled to connect to theInternet network, illustrated here as Internet backbone 105 representingall of the networks and sub-networks and interconnections that make upthe Internet network, through either a local WiFi network 112 or throughradio communication on a cellular network 104, either of which maygateway to Internet backbone 105.

Two Internet-connected servers 106 and 107, coupled respectively to datarepositories 107 and 109 are shown, both executing respectively software(SW) instances 110 and 111, which provide functionality for the servers.One or both may be enabled to provide functionality and services tousers as described in enabling detail below in embodiments of thepresent invention.

Assume for example that server 106 provides functionality for users inembodiments of the invention. Server 106 may in embodiments provide,through execution of SW 110, one or more web sites with one or morepages servable to users, who in many embodiments will be registeredmembers of the SIO system, and will have user profiles, includinghistory of activity with the system of the invention and with objectsregistered with the service.

In one embodiment a registered user may wish to socially instantiate anobject in the system of the invention, which, because every objectsocial instantiation is unique, and association is made between theobject and a unique object code, as described above, may be done onlyonce. In embodiments of the invention a formalized process is providedfor object social instantiation.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process for socialinstantiation of an object in an embodiment of the invention. At step201 a registered user connects to system server 106. Server 106authenticates the user through functionality provided through executionof SW 110. The server presents an interactive interface by a browserapplication on the user's device, which enables the user to select froma variety of activities, and in this example the user elects at step 203to socially instantiate an object.

At step 204 the user identifies the object to be instantiated, anduploads information about the object to the server. This information maybe of many sorts, and may in some instances be quite extensive. The usermay photograph the object, create video of the object, and may enter anyamount of textual information or recorded audio regarding the object. Inone embodiment this object information, which may include extensivecontextual information, such as where the object is presently, where theobject has been, where how and when the object has been associated withspecific persons, and so forth, is stored temporarily while the systemattempts to determine whether the object in question may already beinstantiated with an SIO code and related information in databasescoupled to the server. It is important to understand that this uploadingof information is not a one-time process. Once an object is instantiatedwith a social identity the instantiating user, and indeed other users,may upload more information over time at different points in time.

If the system determines to the best of information available that theobject in question has not been instantiated with a social identity, thesystem selects a unique SIO code at step 205. This step may, in someembodiments, have other levels of intelligence. For example, objectshaving social identity may be, as described above, assemblies orcollections of other objects. An example is a residence, which may beinstantiated by a user with social identity, but will certainly comprisea considerable number of other objects, such as the roof, a fireplacethe back driveway, a box in the attic, and so on. As a simplisticexample, a registered user may in the illustrated process, beinstantiating a carpet in her living room with a social identity, andthe system may discover that the living room itself, and the residenceas well already have been instantiated and have a unique SIO code. Inthis case immediate association will be made in a nested, hierarchicalmanner, between the new SIO code being assigned to the carpet, and theSIO codes of the living room and the residence. Since the address of theresidence will be known in this example, because the residence isalready instantiated with social identity and code, the city or town,County, State, Country, planet, and so on may also be known, and may besocially registered as well. Codes in such cases will be hierarchicallynested, and in some cases, whether or not the town or state, for exampleactually has an SIO code.

The nesting association described immediately above will in someembodiments be accomplished by tagging. In one embodiment it is theassigned code that is tagged. One important tag in this embodiment willbe object description. In step 204 described above among the items ofinformation that a user may upload to the system at time ofinstantiation is a physical description of the object, which in the caseof objects that are not virtual, will usually include one or more imagesor video sequences.

In an embodiment of the invention data structure is provided such thateach SIO code assigned will have a substantial list of tags. One ofthese is object description. Others may be an object history, which mayinclude a time when the object came into being (birth of the object). Achair for example will have been manufactured or made by a person. Thehistory may be extensive. Another tag may be association with people,which may or may not be member users of the system of the invention. Avery important aspect of the invention is this association of objects,characteristics of objects, history, stories about objects, and soforth, which is described in more detail below.

It will be apparent to the skilled person that some contextualinformation for some objects may be fluid in nature. For example, a usermay register a personal aircraft, or a locomotive, for example. Locationon the planet may be known at the time of registration and assigning aunique SIO code, but as time passes the location may change drastically.In some embodiments the system may have functionality for periodicallyor continually updating contextual information regarding many objects,such as by accessing data from other Internet-connected sites likeserver 108 of FIG. 1 , which might be a server hosted by an airline, forexample.

Once the system has generated or assigned a unique SIO code to theobject in question, the system associates that code and all of theinformation regarding the object in a database for the purpose inrepository 107, at step 206, creating an object profile. The informationwill in some embodiments also comprise current ownership, and a historyof ownership, if any. Importantly, in many embodiments the system alsoassociates the registering user to the object as the first to haveregistered that object socially. In many embodiments this affordsspecial privileges to that user regarding that object, and may openunique controlling functionality for the user, which is describedfurther below.

At step 207 the unique SIO code assigned is sent to the registeringuser. For exemplary purpose, assume that the codes assigned are 128-bitbinary, as in ipV6 address notation. In this instance the code sent maybe the hexadecimal notation of the 128-bit binary, which reduces eachsequence of 16 bits to a sequence of four letters and/or numbers. Thiswill be a code with a maximum of 32 characters. In other embodiments the128-bit binary may be rendered by the system as a base-10 number, andthen rendered in scientific notation as a decimal number and a a factorof ten. There are a variety of different ways that the fullrepresentation of the code may be reduces to an abbreviated form thatmay allow transmission and use by users of codes that are moremanageable than 128-bit binary.

In some embodiments registered users will be enabled through softwareexecuting on the user's computerized appliance to have a local datarepository where SIO codes instantiated by that user are stored, as wellas at least partial information of associations of the codes as storedin the system repositories on the server side.

In various embodiments there are a variety of ways that the system mayenable users to physically affix a code to the object registered. Thesystem may provide, for example, the SIO code as a bar code or a QR thatmay be printed on the object or printed on a tag or other physicalidentifier that may be affixed to the object. In many cases the user maystore the code received from the system, and may not affix the code inany manner to the object that was registered to have social identity.Consider, for example, that a registered user is the first toinstantiate the one moon of the planet Earth to the system to have asocial identity. The user may receive the assigned SIO code, but mayhave difficulty attaching the code to the moon. Nevertheless, the systemknows that there is but one moon for the planet Earth, and there shouldbe no confusion in the matter in functions in embodiments of theinvention.

It will be apparent to the skilled person that a substantial number ofobjects may be instantiated to the system as having a social identity,and may be assigned unique SIO codes. Information, including image,textual and audio information, as well as contextual information, may beuploaded to the system to be stored and usable regarding the objectsregistered. Very significantly, contextual information may also includeassociation of registered users and other users to objects registered.That is, the original registering user may in some embodiments beassociated in a high profile way to the objects that that userinstantiates. But the original user may associate other users with theobject, or other users may be associated by the system by functionalityencoded as machine intelligence in the system. For example, in oneembodiment the system associates with the Facebook™ system, perhapsthrough an API, and when a registered user instantiates an object, thatuser's first degree friends in Facebook™ may automatically be associatedwith the object as well. In this case there may be functionality for thefriends to dis-associate if they wish. The same sort of automaticassociation may be made for other social network sites where individualsmay have associations with others.

An important issue in embodiment of the invention is that each objectinstantiated as having a social identity is actually unique. That is,the same object has not been previously instantiated and assigned an SIOcode. It was described above that the system, at the time ofregistration of an object determines to the best of its ability at thetime whether the object already has been instantiated and has an SIOcode. The process of ensuring unique instantiation, however, is anongoing process, and the system may determine at some time after anobject is registered that the object is, in fact, not unique, and mayhave been previously registered. In this ongoing process correction andadjustment may be made, with appropriate notification to members.

As a result of the substantial social instantiation of objects andassociation with information, including contextual information andpersonal association of persons and other objects, a great deal ofinformation may be stored and cross-referenced, and made accessible tousers and enterprises.

Referring once again to FIG. 1 , device 101 may be a computerized deviceunder control of a user of the system of the invention, and may be inthis example any sort of computerized device having Internet access andI/O capability. Object 103 is in this example an object that has beenpreviously registered as having a social identity, and was at the timeassigned a unique SIO code. The object also has, by virtue of havingbeen instantiated as having a social identity, associated with theobject's code in the system, considerable associated image, textual andaudio information, as well as rich association with other objects andpersons, both registered and not registered, all of which is recorded ina dB in repository 107.

A registered user may interact with the system of the invention throughfunctionality provided by SW 110 executing on server 106 to access,review and download stored information regarding object 103, and mayupload more information regarding that object, which the system will addto the already stored and associated information. This interaction mayoccur in a variety of ways in various embodiments of the invention.

One mode of interaction may be through an SIO code that may be somehowaffixed to object 103, and which may be imaged by the user viaimage-capture capability 102 of device 101. A user may focus the imagingapparatus on object 103 and capture the SIO code as a QR code, which inone embodiment will initiate connection to the Internet and to server106, displaying an interactive interface to the user, with capabilityfor the user to review all of the associated information of object 103,perhaps incrementally, and all of the contextual information, includingassociation with other objects and persons who may or may not beregistered users of the system.

In one use case, an instantiated object might be, for example, a museumartifact connected to previous locations and curators tracked back todiscovery of the object. A connected user might be a student whodiscovered the object. Objects may be related in a variety of ways, suchas being individual paintings of a set of paintings, or individual bonetypes of a dinosaur skeleton, etc. There are many, many possibilities.

In one aspect a user that owns a coded object might be interested in whoowns other existing copies or originals of the same object that make upa set of the objects such as a series of painting by a same artist, or acollection of compact discs of a same musician band or composer. In oneaspect, the object might be a virtual object or a copy of a real objectheld in seclusion or not generally available for public viewing. Membersor public visitors such as member 704 may access rich information.

The information store and association for a socially instantiated objectmay be very rich and varied. As a single example a user may register avintage musical instrument, a guitar, for example, once owned and usedby Willie Nelson. That guitar may be associated in the data repositorywith a new owner of the guitar, who may be the person registering theguitar. It may also be associated with other owners, and with extensivedata about Willie Nelson, relating, for example, to concerts whereWillie Nelson used that guitar. Associations may also be made to similarguitars (perhaps the same make or type) owned or used by others.Intricate relationships between persons and objects and other personsand other objects, replete with stories and histories, may be made. Auser might, for example, through the guitar object, find and communicatewith other persons who were in attendance at a particular venue whereWillie Nelson played that guitar.

As another single example an object might be a bench, a seat in astadium, or other fixed location hosting the object in a fixed position.The code of the object in this case may provide information aboutactions that object has “witnessed”. For a stadium seat, for example, ahome run may have landed there. A dignitary might have sat there for anevent.

It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that the contactbrokering system of the invention may be provided using some or all ofthe mentioned features and components without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention. It will also be apparent to theskilled artisan that the embodiments described above are specificexamples of a single broader invention that may have greater scope thanany of the singular descriptions taught. There may be many alterationsmade in the descriptions without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

In some embodiments of the inventions enabled in this specification theidentifying mechanism may be other than an indicia or member number. Insome cases electronic devices, similar to the chips used in petidentification, may be used, and a member's mobile device may be enabledto connect to the electronic chip wirelessly, or by contact, and toretrieve the unique SIO code, and use that SIO code to access data inthe network, such as the website of a service according to an embodimentof the invention. In this aspect the service in an embodiment of theinvention, when a new person or object is registered, may assign aunique SIO code, and that SIO code may be encoded in an electronicdevice rather than printed on a decal or the like, or both. Theelectronic devices may be provided in many different forms that may beadded to or embedded in objects.

In one embodiment of the invention an interactive interface provided bythe system to a registered user may enable that user, reviewingassociations of a socially instantiated object with persons, tocommunicate with one or more of the associated persons. In someembodiments users may be enabled to authorize or deny such communicationor provision of contact information. In one embodiment a person'scontact information may not be provided, but a communication may be leftfor the person at the network site, and the system will notify theperson that there is a communication to retrieve.

Also in one embodiment there may be a service for users who own sociallyinstantiated items to sell or trade these items with other users. Thisservice is integrated with the communication system in that offers forsale, buy or trade may be made to other users, or in general, and may bepublished in a variety of ways. A potential seller may, for example,advertise an item for sale with a price and time or other terms, andinstruct the offer to be made only to a subset of other registered userswho may be identified by the system from profile information, forexample. A transaction system, including collecting and paying money andother value may be a part of the system as well.

In one embodiment of the invention, a variation of the coding schemeallows the system to assign a window of sequential (serial) codes to anobject, and the forward progression of codes in the window are torepresent the object at different points in time over a period of time.The first code of the serial window identifies the object at the timethe object first enters the social universe as an instantiated object.The next 365,000, for example, in the overall series are now reservedfor the same object and represent the same object incremented in agefrom AE (after entry) in one day increments for a thousand years. Now,anytime someone references that object in the system the id isincremented by the delta-days from AE. The example, of course, issubject to bending and stressing according to need.

In some embodiments of the invention the code assigned to a sociallyinstantiated object may be assigned and stored in the system, with allof the information and association described above, but there may be avariety of ways that that code, once transmitted to a user, may berendered and used for identification of objects. For example, a code maybe rendered as light or variations in light, and as such, may becommunicated from an object to a person seeking the code for the object.Consider a case where a reflector may be attached to an object such thatimpinging white light may be reflected in a range and ordered sequenceof wavelengths (colors). A capturing device might have a locallyexecuted program, compatible with SW at the system site, that couldprocess the color sequences and translate same to the SIO code in themanner stored at the system site. A QR code might also employ color.

In other embodiments sound and sound sequence may be used to tag anobject, and to communicate code by the object to interested persons. Inone embodiment a binary sequence may be rendered by a series of veryclosely spaced lines in a surface, the lines having at least some slightdepth into the surface. In this scheme there is a standard separationdistance, assume 1 decimeter. So two vertical lines side by siderepresent two binary one's side by side at that position in thesequence. If there is no adjacent line at 1 decimeter from another, thenthere is an intervening binary zero at the position. A binary sequenceof 128 bits may then be represented by these lines lake a bar code, butin this case the code is read by dragging a wand across the linesequence in an agree-to direction, producing a sound that may becaptured by a device's microphone and rendered by an app on the deviceback to the SIO code. So codes in or on objects do not have to be QR orbar codes, they might be light emitted or sound embodied codes that maybe translated as needed to the SIO code. In sound, pitch and frequencyare also usable for variation for coding and code communication.

In one embodiment of the invention a mechanism is provided in theinstantiation of objects by members enabling the member to classify thenew object or the associated manager of the object as Anonymous, Publicor Restricted. If the member selects Anonymous as a category for theobject, the nature of the object will be searched, as described above,to try to establish that the object is not redundant. The member in thisparticular case can attach information to the object, but the member insome circumstances might not be associated with the object. In othercircumstances the member who instantiates the object might be associatedwith the object, but the association may be hidden from other members,or at least a sub-set of other members. In various aspects of theinvention information related to an object may be completely anonymous,may be completely public, or may be restricted in a variety of ways.

If the member selects Public as a classification, the nature of theobject will be searched, as described above, to try to establish thatthe object is not redundant. The member can categorize or identify aPublic object and the member's identity will be associated with the newobject. In some embodiments a member may be enabled to moderate contentassociated with the new object by other members.

If the member selects Restricted as a classification, the member cancategorize or identify the object, the member's identity will beassociated with the new object, and the member may restrict what othermembers may interact with the object and may view and moderate anyinteractions.

FIG. 3 is a diagram demonstrating how instantiated objects may berelated (associated) in an embodiment of the invention with such aspeople, other objects, stories and much more. A user station 301 isInternet-capable, and shown connected to an Internet-connected service305 in an embodiment of the invention. A registered user at station 301has interactive windows provided by software (SW) 302, which may in onealternative be executed at the user's station, as provided by service305, or in another alternative may operate a browser application whereinservices and functionality are provided from the server side throughinteractive pages accessible through the browser application.Functionality through SW 302 is roughly divided into two categories:Input and Instantiation functions 303 and Search and Retrieval functions304.

As is described above, every object, virtual or physical, that isinstantiated by a registered user has a unique SIO code 305. Referringback to FIG. 2 , when a user instantiates an object in the system, atstep 204 the user enters information about the object. At this point theinformation is used by the system to determine if the object already isin the system with an SIO code. But after the code is assigned, theinformation is categorized, stored and associated with the code.Further, after a code is assigned the same, or in some cases otherusers, may add to the information regarding the object.

In one embodiment at step 204 an interactive guide are provided to theuser to guide the user in submitting the minimum information that allowsthe system to properly determine whether the object is already in thesystem, and to adequately describe the object at a minimum when an SIOcode is assigned. The user may be prompted, for example to respond as towhether the object is physical or virtual, whether the object, ifphysical, is an assembly of other objects that may be in the system, ormay be entered in the system. Other prompts may be provided to furthercategorize and describe the object. The user may be prompted, ifappropriate, to provide images or videos to help describe the object.There may be a step in this process wherein the system determines thatthe object is, in fact an assembly of other objects in the system, or isan element in an assembly in the system as an object having an SIO code.

There may be a broad variety of types of information about objects thatmay be entered by users or determined by the system. As shown in FIG. 3, storage on the server side may have rich description of the object,history of the object, which may include owners and users andassociation with times and time windows, stories about the object,wherein the stories may be categorized as well, people associated withthe object, and people associated with people associated with theobject. The personal associations will in many instances be a richmatrix of threads. There may be as well object to object associations,such as described above, where an object is an element of an assembly ofobjects, or is itself an assembly of other elements as objects. Thediagram of FIG. 3 is exemplary, and is meant to represent as associationthat may be far more extensive that that shown.

SW 302 in FIG. 3 is shown to include functions 303 for a user to inputinformation, always related to an object, and to instantiate objects inthe system. These input and output functions operate together in manyways. For example, a user may connect to the system to find an object inthe system. The user may search for an object through entry of an SIOOcode, or by keywords related to any of the categories in the system. Asa single example, a user may elect to look for stories about racehorses. The system might return a list of such stories much as might bereturned by Google™, but from the system's data storage facilitiesrather than the Internet. The specificity in this list will depend onthe detail of the search criteria entered by the user. There may be richinteractive guidance provided by the system to provide specificity.

Every story about a racehorse in a list that is returned will berepresented simply as a title, or a few words or lines at the beginningof the story, or perhaps by a synopsis of the story. Every item in thelist will be interactive for the user to go to the story and read it, orhear it recited, or watch it as a PowerPoint or as a video or movie,depending on the nature of the story as entered by a registered user,and associated with an object by an SIO code. In addition to access tothe stories of the nature sought, the items in the returned list will beinteractively associated with the SIO code, hence the object, to whichthe story is associated. This association with the object of the storymay be to more than one object in a descending order of strength ofassociation, led by the object and SIO code to which the story wasoriginally entered. This is because a story, once entered, may beassociated by the system or by a user with other objects, and alsobecause the strongest object association may have association with otherobjects as well.

It may be seen, then, that there are a multitude of entry points intothe associated storage at the system, and any entry may lead to a widevariety of destinations, leading to still other destinations. In thissingle example, the user entered the matrix of associations by seekingstories about racehorses, but a user might enter by seeking an SIO code,perhaps found physically affixed to an object, which will lead byanother choice of many paths to many other sorts of information.

In one embodiment of the invention the associations, indicated by simplelines in FIG. 3 , may have a range of strength, which may be byincrement or by quantification in a preprogrammed range. Associationstrength may vary, for example between 1 and 100, either by integer, orby decimal numbers. In navigating through items of informationassociated with one another and with objects having SIO codes thestrength of association may be one means of determining by a user whereto go next after once entering the data repository through a search.

As described above, users may add information and associations to thedata repository under certain circumstances. In one embodimentinformation entry may be closed for a particular SIO, or restricted,perhaps by the registered user that instantiates the object. In someinstances the instantiating user, or another user designated as anadministrator for certain SIO codes, may review and filter informationadded by others, and may have ability to block or to alter and editinformation entered. In one embodiment there are queues for newlyentered information, which may be provided to moderators for reviewbefore being released into the associated data for use by others.

One particular circumstance in which entry may be restricted is in theinstance of instantiation by a user of a virtual object. This may be,for example, a fictional character or fictional object imagined(authored) by the instantiating user, and may he offered for interactionto other users only in a managed way by the instantiating user. A simpleexample might be a love poem authored by one user, instantiated with anSIO code, associated with other poems, works of art and people, perhaps,that the original author might open to amendment or addition by otheruser poets, in which the original author may be the sole judge of whataddition or change might be made. One may imaging, as another example,that one user may start a fictional story with a character, and enter afirst chapter, after which the story may open to other users to refineor add a character, to enter a second chapter, or a number of separat5echapters, wherein a story may branch off into a wide variety ofdifferent stories by input of other users, or a single story may bejointly developed by a group of users, who may associate by agreement,and who may have discussions as to where the story may go next.

The last example opens another important point, which is that registeredusers in the system will typically have a user profile, perhaps with analias and with real or hidden contact information, such that users maycontact one another and interact in a wide variety of ways through thesystem. In some embodiments such interaction is entirely within thesystem of the invention through an internal text or messaging mechanism.There may also be ability by user permission, for some users to contactother users outside the mechanisms of the invention.

In a rather broad statement of the invention, in some embodiments aunique identifier, such as a mark or sequence of numbers, letters,colors, sounds, shapes and/or combination thereof that is attached toany inanimate object (physical or metaphysical) and used to humanize itas a digital social being and or digitally connect to other objects orpeople. This includes an object's history, its characteristics,characteristics others have assigned, personality and who it has beenconnected to and who is currently connected to the object.

In one embodiment entry by a registered user enables that user to searchand browse through all of the content of the system, by SIO code or byother characteristics of information, following lines of association toother items of information, people, timelines, and more, all associatedin the system. In some other embodiments the system is filtered forparticular use cases. As one example, collaborative authorship orcreation of other items of art may be a specific use case, in whichassociations to objects and people might he confined to justcollaborative novels, to just collaborative poetry, and so on. There maybe a configuration interface for a user to invoke filters to justparticularly desired subject matter.

Entry into the system was described to some extent above, such as byinvoking a search interface in a number of ways. It was described that auser might simply enter an SIO code that is known to that or anotheruser, or might be affixed to an object in some manner. There will be, inalternative embodiments a considerable variety of ways SIO codes mightbe entered to some cases one might simply image an object having anaffixed SIO code, enter that to the system, and the system willtranslate the code and connect to the unique object associated with thatcode. Such a code might be a bar code, a QR code, or a pattern of dotsburned into a surface, for example. Once the system associates theentered code to the unique object. associated with that unique code, allof the associations of various sorts and strengths are open to the userhaving entered the code, and the user may then ascertain all sorts ofinformation, such as history of the object and people associated withthe object.

A tree may be instantiated as an object by a registered user. The treemay then be cut down, milled, and turned into other objects which may inturn by instantiated in the system of the invention. Other objects maybe, for example, furniture, which items of furniture may be associatedwith the original tree object, with the person who cut down the tree,with the lumber mill that milled the tree into useful planks and suchlike. A filter in place may limit access to associations that begin withthe felling of the tree, or may go back further to when the tree wasplanted, for example.

A building as an object may be instantiated with an SIO code as well asother objects and people in or associated with the building and aneighborhood or borough, city county, or state where the building may beknown to reside. A user may find the history of the building, whatbusinesses were started there, who started them, when they started, whatobjects were used and who used them.

A ship in a mothball fleet may be instantiated, along with items in theship, and objects like a flotilla or geography including the ship. Theship may eventually be scrapped and portions of the ship may be madeinto cell phone cases, which may be associated back to the ship.

A book may be instantiated—read by my father—then by my mother—and soon. Through search a user might discover who has read THAT book, historyof those persons, people who have read similar books, and otherassociations of various strength may be followed. Associations may bemade to similar books by genre.

Geographic locations may be instantiated with information entered andassociated as to what people have been at this location, what historymay have occurred at a location, and more.

An occasion, a happenstance may be instantiated and assigned an SIOcode. For example, a person proposes to her sweetheart at a particularlocation. That occasion is associated with other people and otheroccasions that are :linked by intersection with the occasion.

A celestial object like a planet or a star, or indeed a galaxy, may beinstantiated, and information may be entered of many different sorts,such as relative placement in the universe relative to other celestialobjects, as well as age, prognosis for super nova, brightness, and muchmore.

Items of pottery may be instantiated and associated with artisan, otherartisans, type, art genre, availability, age, and much more. Other sortsof artwork, such as paintings, may be instantiated with association to agreat deal of information, such a water-color or oil painting, brushesused, similarity to works of other artist, people who have seen apainting, emotional reactions by persons to a painting, and so on.

An instantiated relic from the French Revolution might connect people tothe history and the people who fought there as well as everywhere thatrelic has been and who has connected with it, and also with the manystories of the revolution.

A particular seat at a sporting event might be instantiated with an SIOcode on the seat. Associations may be made to actions that seat haswitnessed. A home run may have landed there. Someone has had seasontickets in that seat and many people have sat there over time.

Groups of people, like the Rolling Stones as a band may be instantiated,and quite rich associations may be made to performers, persons inaudience at various times, type of music, music history and repertoire,and so on.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating architecture and functionality in yetanother embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3 in thatthe service 305 of the invention is illustrated, but labeled as aVirtual World of Objects Mirroring the Real World of Objects. It is truethat many objects instantiated and associated with an SIO code in thevirtual world may be insubstantial and objects in only a broad sense ofthe word. For example, it is permissible for members of the service toenter and instantiate objects that me be purely imaginary, likeSuperhero characters. A substantial subset of the virtual world ofobjects instantiated by members are virtual entities mirroringreal-world entities. A member, as one small example, may enter andinstantiate an automobile as an object in the virtual world; not afantasy automobile, but an automobile owned by the member and driven ona daily basis. In such a circumstance the automobile in the virtualworld, associated with an SIO code, becomes a virtual associate of theobject in the real world.

In the circumstance just described regarding virtual objects and theirassociation to real objects, the virtual objects are data points in adatabase, associated with stored information that in many cases isentered by the original member that instantiated the object, and thatmay have a great deal of associated information added by other members.The real objects in the real world have space and time reality that thecounterpoint virtual objects do not have.

System 401 illustrated in FIG. 4 is a system comprising hardware, one ormore memory elements, and one or processors executing codedinstructions. The hardware includes a plurality of input feeds 402labeled 1-n, and a data connection to the virtual world. Input feeds 1-nmay be drawing information from a variety of sources, such as a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) Device in an automobile that may have beeninstantiated into the virtual world. At the time of instantiating theautomobile the member doing so may have access to selections enablingtracking of the automobile. That is, the member may be presented by thesystem with a configuration interface wherein the member may identify aGPS device (the one in the car).

With GPS enabled for the car that is instantiated, system 401 will lookfor signals from the GPS through one of feeds 402, and finding same willupdate information associated in the virtual world with the virtualobject mirroring the car, so that real-time position (space and time)for the virtual car may match real time position of the actual car. Thevirtual world car now has time and position of the real world car.

The car example provided just above is but one small example of thesorts of information that may be anonymously collected by system 401 andstored into the database defining the virtual world. System 401 maymonitor news releases and broadcasts, and parse such for references toobjects that have counterparts in the virtual world. This collectedintelligence may be added to and associated with the counterpartobjects.

Another part of system 401 is subsystem 403, which provides delta valuesand alerts. In the example of the car above, as GPS is tracked for thecar, new time and position information may be developed, and reports maybe made to the owner of the car that the car has moved twelve miles SSE,for example, in a time delta of 30 minutes. Members may be able toconfigure their own profiles and system functions to provide alerts incertain cases. In this manner circumstances in the virtual world may bekept relatively close to circumstances in the real world.

FIG. 5 is a diagram similar to FIG. 4A showing how adding a new SIO codemight work as related to grandma's china, as a more specific example ofinstantiation of an object and association of the object with otherobjects and people in a more specific situation. FIG. 5 illustrates howone SIO coded object relates to another to give an idea of how broad isthe use of object instantiation. Configuration at time of instantiationand afterward connects the set of china to a person, both of theirhistories, locations, the parents and person who gave birth to theindividual making the china as well as the parent of the person gettingthe china.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of how the system may tie SIO codestogether in the virtual world. The idea of an individual car, a store,an item in the store, a credit card, and a receipt all having SIO codesin the real world, when brought together create a relativity that may berecreated in the virtual world to make automatic direct associationsthat can be used to fulfill a requirement by other systems in the realworld. This example shows how all that information of where a car waslocated, who was in it, when it left, how far it went, to what location,what the person purchased, the credit card they used, a copy of thereceipt and their return drive can be reproduced in the virtual world tointerface that data with an accounting software package in the realworld to automatically input business transaction and mileage. Abilityto determine and associate SIOs in both the real world and our virtualworld also enables making available predictive analysis and real timesearches. The diagram shows such searches and predictive analysis:

-   -   What restaurants in an area are used for business deals?    -   Is a store more of a consumer store or business?    -   What are the average distance people will drive to purchase a        printer?    -   What is the carbon footprint of purchasing a printer versus        having it sent to you?

FIG. 8 is a drawing showing a potential hierarchical system of the SIOsin both the real world and virtual world. In this model, the Locationdata table represents the “parent” part of the hierarchy, while theBuilding represents the “child” part of the hierarchy. To move fartherdown the control system, the Building data table represents the “newparent” part of the hierarchy, while the Business 1's SOI located in thebuilding, Business 2 SOI's located in the building, represents the“child” part of the hierarchy. And it continues creating parent-childrelationships as more relationships are made to the SOI's. In contrastto typical tree structures, in this model each SIO can be a child or aparent at the same time to different SIOs.

FIG. 9 is an example of how the system can potentially an SIO codes ofdifferent families living in a specific home over a period of time. Theability to follow the history of a home, when it was built, the peoplethat lived in the home and where each of these people are now is notavailable today, but it can be available in the virtual world. Even theitems that were and are in the house can be instantiated, assigned SIOcodes, associated hierarchically with a wealth of information, and betracked and found or verified if needed.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a complex object having an SIO code and how oneSIO code can transition into many SIO codes. The example illustrates aship that was built in the 1950's. The diagram shows how the ship, thepeople in the ship, the parts of the ship can all have SIO codes andhistories. In this example after the ship is put out of commission, eachof the parts can be issued a separate SIP code and these can be tracked.If the ship was dismantled the parts can be repurposed and used to makedifferent items. Each type of item if it were to go to differentmanufactures could be tracked as it is made into parts, sheet metal,iron beams, and blocks of steel. If it was then used to make cellphones, went to a collector's museum, used to make a skyscraper, ormelted to make a gun—the entire history of all the SOI could be trackedat different time in their history.

-   -   Who was on the ship?    -   When was the ship built?    -   What battles was the ship involved in?    -   My cell phone carries the metal used in the 1950 Destroyer that        survived all attacks that Robert Harris was on.

In another important aspect of the invention a very sophisticatedstatistical ability is provided whereby the nature of objects,associations of persons with objects and objects with objects, includingthoughts and emotions entered by persons about objects, and personalcharacteristics and profiles of persons with objects are trackedrelative to time, and periodic snapshots of segments of the database maybe made, and analyzed in a wide variety of ways, with statisticalrepresentations of such snapshots made available, either publically orin a restricted manner. Segment definition may be made in real time in asearch facility, and any one or more of a wide variety of algorithms maybe called to provide statistical output relative to one or moresegments. The algorithms available for statistical analysis may becreated in real time (on-the-fly) as well.

As perhaps a rather simple example, a member may be authorized by thesystem to seek statistical output by defining a segment as allinstantiated objects that are commercial cruise ships over a particulartonnage and belonging to any of three commercial cruise lines, andanalyze information in the system as to, for example, how many personsof a particular ethnic origin and above a threshold income level bookedpassage on these cruise liners in a particular two-week time window ofthe previous calendar year.

As another simple example, the segment may be limited to a singlepainting hanging in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, for whichpersons who are associated in the database with this painting haveentered emotional reactions to this painting at various times. The queryin this example may be to track how emotional reaction to this paintingmay have changed over a prescribed period of time over the totality ofpeople associated with the painting and who have entered such opinion,and how reaction may have changed depending upon one or more of age,ethnicity, gender, height weight, hair color, or any othercharacteristic of such persons that may be available in personalprofiles of the persons in the system. Characteristics of course may becombined in different ways in different interrogatories in suchanalysis.

The skilled artisan will recognize that such statistical abilitycombined with search criteria, segmentation criteria, and the great dealof information and variety of associations in the system provides a veryvaluable tool for personal, private and commercial analysis, that may beleveraged in many ways by an enterprise hosting such a system.

In some embodiments of the invention, related to statistical trackingand reporting, information associated with one object may beautomatically associated with one or more other objects as well. Thisfunction enables a member, for example, to enter information about orfor a specific object, which information may be then associated with allobjects that share a particular characteristic with the specific object.

In one aspect of the invention it is important to understand, asdescribed in different places above, that an “object” in the concept ofthe Social Identity of Objects as described in many aspects in thisspecification, is not limited to objects having physical reality. Anyidentifiable entity that may be expressed as a noun in language may bean instantiated object in this SIO concept. There is no generalagreement, for example, that religious figures have physical reality,although many believe that they do in many cases. So, as a very broaddefinition, if you can imagine it and name it, it may be instantiated asan object with an SIO code in the SIO database. Many such objects mayhave mostly verbal or textual descriptions associated in the SIO dB, butmay also be linked to art works, sketches or pictures, for example,provided by the instantiating member or others, according to eachperson's understanding of the nature of the object, whether real orimaginary, regardless of opinions as to whether an instantiated objectis real or imaginary. Again, any entity that may be imagined and named,for which a description may be provided, may be instantiated in the SIOsystem and assigned a unique SIO code, and that object may be associatedin a number of ways with the person who initiates the instantiation.

One very important instance of object instantiation has to do with theInternet network and the vastly interconnected instances of informationsites, termed nodes or websites, each of which typically has beenassigned an IP address and a URL comprising a domain name, that usesthat IP address to connect interested people in the Internet network toindividual ones of such nodes. It is well known in the art that personsoperating Internet-capable appliances may execute browsing applications,like Google for example, and may connect to such information sites byasserting a URL, or in some cases an IP address directly, and may useinteractive interfaces presented by the browser program in interactionwith website, to access information and activities and services providedby the website, including further navigation to pages in the site andother sites. This, of course, is how the SIO system works as well.

In one embodiment of the instant invention a person may, throughprocedures described above, instantiate a website in the Internet as anobject in the SIO system, assigning a unique SIO code to the site thatis different from the IP address or URL of the site. The instantiatingperson may enter description of the site, which may include the IPaddress and the URL, or multiple URLs associated with the site, and anyother description that may be associated with each such site in manneras described above.

The description above regarding websites may be extended to nodes in theInternet of Things as well, with different nodes in the IoT beinginstantiated as objects in the SIO system, each with a unique SIO code,such that such network objects may be related to people and otherobjects in the SIO system in the many ways described above.

In one embodiment o the invention the population of Internet sitesinstantiated in the SIO system by SIO code may be accessed through theSIO system by asserting the SIO code, which automatically in thisembodiment asserts the URL and/or IP address. In various embodiments ofthe invention the SIO system may crawl the population of Internet sitesin the SIO system, and may cache sites by various criteria, includingtextual, audio and image content, and search and browse functions may beprovided in very specialized ways to facilitate enhanced searchfunctions for members of the SIO system.

The skilled artisan will understand that the descriptions made above,some with reference to particular figures and elements in figures, areall exemplary of the architecture and functions that may be provided inembodiments of the invention. There are many other objects and sorts ofobjects that may be instantiated in the invention, and many functions inentry, search browsing, editing information, and such like that willfall within the spirit and scope of the invention.

-   The Social Identity of Objects is comprised of an object's continual    positioning in time and space, it's appearance, relationships with    other objects and the interactions with or effects on human and    non-human entities.

The software that executes on the Internet-connected server that enablesinstantiation of objects is termed Socrates by the inventors. Thesoftware in various aspects of functionality also enables instantiationof SIO data for each object in the system, and recommends data based ontime, place, space, written tags, photos, videos, descriptions,commonality, and emotions to be displayed through an interface, amongother functions described elsewhere in this specification.

The SIO code is attached to or associated with each object, whether itbe physical or metaphysical and is used to reference the object when newdata associated to the object is received or communicated.

In the system no two objects are exactly the same. From the time theyare instantiated they are, by nature, their own individual object andhave their own specific set of attributes. Much of this differentiationis caused by human, planning, design or interactions, but some can becreated in the virtual world as well. This model of creating socialidentities for objects may have a significant impact in quests forunderstanding and exploring virtual reality and artificial intelligenceas well as enrich existence for persons interacting with the system, andthe objects in the system and counterparts in the real world.

The skilled person will understand that there may be many focusedapplications and use cases to which aspects and features of the presentinvention, in various embodiments may be applied. One such use case maybe application to museums, art galleries, and other managed, curatedand/or natural collections of objects.

SIO in a Museum or Collectibles Application

In application to a museum the SIO system may have a dedicated databasewith many of the attributes described above. Notably every person actingin an agent capacity for the museum, sometimes termed, for example,curators, will be assigned a unique SIO number, as will every personregistered with the museum and enabled to upload digital files, such asphotos, videos, audio files, PowerPoint files, PDF figures, figures invector drawing programs, and essentially any known sort of digital file,to add to the evolution of a social identity for individual ones ofobjects instantiated as museum objects.

In the broader aspects of the SIO system as described above, anyregistered person might be enabled to instantiate an object, to which anSIO code may be associated. In the more narrow aspects of the SIO systemas applied to a museum or other finite collection of objects, the museumobjects may be chosen and displayed in the museum by agents of themuseum, and agents of the museum may instantiate the SIO objectsassociated one to one with the many physical and virtual museum objects.

As museum objects are instantiated in the database by agents of themuseum, individually or in batches, each is associated with a unique SIOcode, and that SIO code is associated with the SIO code of the agent whoinstantiates. Further, objects that are not museum objects on display inthe museum, but that may be related to such objects may also beinstantiated, and cross-associated with the museum objects and theagents,

As the museum database matures, members of the public and of otherenterprises, as well as of other museums, may be enabled to build on theoverall stored social identity of individual ones of the museum objectsby uploading descriptions, stories, experiences, pictures, videos, andmany other digital files in all known media formats, each assigned aunique SIO code as the file is added, and associated both with the useradding the descriptive material and the museum objects.

Once in active use, the SIO system dedicated to the museum may have asubstantial plurality of SIO objects associated with the physical museumobjects, and these may be categorized in different hierarchicalcollections. Users may interact with objects by viewing, uploadingmemories, digital images or videos, or any other type of text or digitalmedia, through their own, or publicly available, digital devices, inprint, through kiosk type displays, or in person at the museum. Thecollections of information in widely disparate digital files, as thesocial identity of the objects to which the information is associated bySIO codes, may be viewed and otherwise digested, that is, experienced,and the evolution of the social identity of individual objects, addsmeaning and social value to the museum objects.

-   How it works:    -   A Curator, or moderator, (an agent) of the museum uploads an        image or other recognizable representation of an object in the        museum, or objects, people or events, related to the museum.        These instantiations may be singular or in batches.    -   The museum object is assigned an SI0 code, and so is the image        representing the object.    -   The SIO code of the image exists in a hierarchical way with the        subject and is connected by attributes in common—similar        tags—with other object SIO's in the system.    -   Visitors may attach their own images, stories, other SIO codes        to SIO codes related to objects in the museum    -   Users outside of the museum can add memories, images and other        content to the object's SIO codes    -   By its very nature the objects in the museum connect users of        the system with many layers of objects, humans, places and        events related to the objects in the museum and the museum        itself.    -   The information provided by the users give the museum curators        and owners of the objects in the museum visibility into the        popularity, significance, history and provenance of the objects        in the museum, or related to objects in the museum over periods        of time.    -   By adding media, comments, experiences and stories to the SIO        codes of the objects, the user will be forever connected to the        object, the museum and the objects related to the object and the        museum.    -   In one example of how SIO Codes may work in a museum, an        individual or groups of visitors may take a photo in front of        the museum or an object in the museum. That photo would be        related to the object and the person in the photo. By assigning        an SIO code to the image and knowing that it is related to the        person in the image and the object in the image, a collage or        mosaic that represents the main object in the image and is        comprised of the combination of two or more images taken by two        or more people would be rendered and given a unique SIO code        related to each of the humans and other SIO codes related to the        humans and other objects in the system.    -   In one example, the objects with SIO Codes and their Social        Identities can be presented in different mediums such as a        kiosk, controlled monitor or Television or other ways to display        and interact with the objects whether connected to the internet        or not.    -   In one example SIO Codes incorporated in such a way to create        interactive learning and/or gamification.

In one example there is an ability to take a physical item's SIO codeand its attributes into the virtual world. Physical objects using theirattributes and those like them to interpret and react to events andhuman activities occurring in the physical world through gaming. Placingthe Physical Object in the Virtual World giving the Virtual WorldsObject chosen attributes to be used in different Virtual Worlds givingthem selected use of those attributes. An example would be a famoussoccer players cleats used in the World Cup Soccer game that was able toscore an amazing number of goals or a method to the goal and allowingthose to be associated with a particular virtual player for a specificgiven amount of time.

Furthermore in this example, the memories associated with the client inthe real world can effect and change what the cleat does in the virtualworld and the actions in the virtual world will impact the identity ofthe object in the physical world in the present and over time as thedata related to the experiences grows and evolves over time. It ispossible for virtual objects to be instantiated higher up the hierarchyand to have representations in the physical world be lower and point tothe original object, in this case a virtual object.

In one instance the SIO Code is used to access the data stored withinthe SIO network. By accessing the network through the code, users cantransfer ownership of or give access to the use of the SIO code toanother user in the system or authorize the continued storage of thehistorical information related to the object.

One example is an ability for the museum to identify SIO's and whatSIO's are of interest to create a linear flow through the museumexhibits so (objects that are less seen but of importance) that themuseum would place these Objects strategically based on the personspassions or interests in the flow to get more interest and/or value.

Another use case is an ability for the museum to add objects that arenot physically in the museum but are given permission by the objectsowners to be in the collection virtually. This allows visitors to themuseum to experience rich content and the social identities of objectsrelated to but not in the museum. This could extend beyond physicalobjects to things such as movie clips, songs, visual and audio mediarelated to the subjects associated to the museum.

The museum might also produce replicas and prints related to objects inthe museum. Each replica or print would be lower hierarchically than theoriginal object, and would represent a child (Replica or print) of theparent (Original) by being individually instantiated, and connected tothe parent and the rest of the children by association.

Another interesting layer of the SIO network in the museum space is anability of the system and the museum's moderators to visualize thereactions by visitors to particular objects based on their demographicdata combined with the reactions they have had to other objects in thesystem compared to the way others have interacted to similar objects.For example, visitors from China may have similar reactions to religiousobjects, whereas natives from Puerto Rico may commonly use words like,“Saint”, “Hero”, “Primero”, when referring to an athlete like, forexample, Roberto Clemente. Women, children or people from differentlocations may use different, but similar words and have differing, butsimilar reactions as others like them. The system may also track thedifference of opinions and vernacular over time.

Users of the system will naturally have emotional reactions to physicalobjects, people, places or events. The system can gather these emotionsand synthesize the combination of emotions in such a way that the enduser can experience the emotions associated with the object throughsound, light, color or descriptive text, or other modalities.

The museum and the objects also share these emotions among each other ina hierarchical manner. For example the emotions associated with allobjects in the museum will be associated with the SIO code of the museumitself.

One SIO attribute that will continue to be surfaced is the notion ofprominence and popularity of objects. By their nature, objects inmuseums are interesting to people and have a level of significance. Themore that visitors virtually or physically interact with the objects,the more they will increase in significance. This is especially the casewhen a person of significance interacts with the object in the SIONetwork.

By their very nature, objects in museums are significant. They may holdsignificance based on the materials they are made from, their rarity,value, their existence in time and space, the events they have“witnessed” or their relationships to historic or significant people, aswell as many other contributing factors. For this purpose and reason,there may be a special or particular SIO code, input field or aninternal ranking system that identifies or gives these objects, people,places or things, more significance within the system and in the real orvirtual worlds.

An object can also be associated with, shared or transferred principlesor standards of behavior; rules, value—monetary and/or sentimental ,rarity, beliefs, emotions, ideals, ideas, culture and any number ofother values or behaviors attached to itself and shared with otherobjects in the SIO system and in the real and virtual worlds.

Physical representations of SIO codes will allow visitors to easilyaccess data related to individual objects in the museum. This caninclude QR codes, bar codes, or a unique sequence of digits that can beentered into a mobile device or scanned. It can also include a uniquerepresentation of an SIO sticker or placard optimized for individualitywhose purpose is to display and/or allow the user access to view orinstantiate objects related to the subject of the physical indicator'ssocial identity. A unique SIO indicator would keep the system closed andmore secure while optimizing the ability to create strings of SIO codesin direct relation to the subject, its children and the changing form ofthe subject over time.

In one implementation the museum may sponsor an Internet connectedserver executing coded instructions from a non-transitory medium, thecoded instructions providing interactive interfaces for both agents ofthe museum, in the many activities and responsibilities of the agents,and also for registration and activities of other persons as patrons ofthe museum, who may by registration, be enabled to add material to thesocial identity of objects of the museum, and to experience the socialidentity of objects as evolved by the additions of other users.

In one implementation there may be an application that may be installedand executed on a mobile device through which users may interact withthe SIO system of the museum. This application may allow anyone with anaccount to add photos, posts, short videos (21 seconds) to any item inthe museum or subject related to the museum that is already in theapplication. The application will allow account holders to share objectinput by email, social channels or other digital, virtual or physicalmediums to display their memories and/or solicit memories from theirfriends, family, acquaintances with similar interests. This version ofthe application may also allow users to begin to create their ownindividual unique identifiers for subjects or objects in theirpossession or of interest to the person. This version would allowprivate storage and display as well as public storage and display ofinstantiated objects and their attributes.

In some embodiments there may be search functions provided for variouspurposes. For example, there may be a search function operable foragents of the museum enabling the agents to search the database using avariety of search criteria. For example, an agent may search SIO codes,names of objects, categories of objects, objects by dates of entry, anda rich variety of other search terms, which may enable agents to trackand publish evolving social identity of objects and categories ofobjects.

Users who are not agents of the museum, and who are enabled to uploadinformation to be associated with objects and groups of objects in themuseum, are each assigned a unique SIO code, and that unique code isassociated in the system with each file that the user may upload. Insome embodiments the users that are not agents are registered to thesystem, and there may be a personal profile, which may comprise at leastsome contact information. Some such users may elect to have theirpersonal information hidden, and some may elect a more public persona.

In one embodiment coded instructions executing on a server may provideinteractive interfaces for users to browse museum objects and to uploadmedia to add to the social identity of museum objects. There may befurther functions to afford communication between users, and enablementmay be dependent to some extent on common interests, as indicated byon-line behavior and activity of the users.

Tracking and publishing social identity of objects and categories ofobjects is an important function in the invention, as this ability makespossible many of the expected outcomes, as listed just below:

-   Expected Outcome    -   Objects in the museum would have a public identity    -   Objects in the museum would become more valuable    -   Objects in the museum would connect people with similar        interests    -   Objects in the museum would gain wider circulation    -   Objects in the museum would be able to be connected to objects,        people, places and events outside of the museum

In yet another embodiment of the invention an Input system is providedto guide a user in instantiating objects.

FIG. 11 illustrates a Social Identify of Objects Input System. This SIOInput

System may comprise a Socrates network 1102 that may collect and storethe social identity of objects (SIOs). The Socrates network 1102 enablesinstantiation of SIO data for each object in the system and recommendsdata based on time, place, space, written tags, photos, videos,descriptions, commonality, frequencies, and emotions to be displayedthrough an interface among other functions. In one embodiment of theinvention, the Socrates network 1102 comprises an Internet-connectedserver with an SIO database 1110. The Socrates network 1102 executes anSIO base module 1104 by a processor from a non-transitory physicalmedium, one or more interactive interfaces presentable by the Socratesnetwork 1102 on a user device 1118. An SIO database 1110 enabled by theSIO base module 1104 storing data describing real or virtual objects inthe SIO database 1110 in a structured manner. A registration processenabled by the SIO base module 1104 whereby users using individual onesof the user devices 1118 are registered as members of the Socratesnetwork 1102 with login and identifying information, an instantiationprocess provided by the SIO input module 1108 enabling instantiation ofvirtual objects in the SIO database 1110 by registered members from theuser devices 1118, wherein a user is enabled through one of theinteractive interfaces to propose a new object for instantiation byentering at least a name and a description for the new object, thesystem determines by comparison with stored information about virtualobjects in the SIO database 1110 if the proposed object is in fact newto the system, and if so associates a unique instantiation code with thenew object, instantiating the new object in the SIO database 1110, and asearch process provided by the SIO search module 1106 enablingregistered members to search for SIOs associated with objects in the SIOdatabase 1110 from the user devices 1118, to access information aboutthe objects when returned in the search process, and to edit theinformation about the objects under particular circumstances. Everyobject instantiated is associated uniquely with the registered user whofirst instantiated that object, and privileges in controllinginformation about that object are reserved for the instantiatingregistered user. Embodiments may include an SIO base module 1104 thatmay allow users to input and search for SIOs. Embodiments may include anSIO search module 1106 that may allow users to search through thelibrary of SIOs in the SIO database 1110. Embodiments may include an SIOinput module 1108 that identifies the correct input template to retrievefrom the SIO template database 1112. The input template may then be usedto collect information associated with the SIO to be collected.Information associated with the object may comprise an objectdescription by one or more of audio files, text files, photographs, andvideos, object history including owners, and stories about theinstantiated objects. Also, in one embodiment, structured associationsare made and recorded between objects and other objects and betweenobjects and registered users. Also, in one embodiment, emotions areassociated with objects. Also, in one embodiment, an object instantiatedand associated with a unique code is composed of other virtual objectsassociated with unique instantiation codes and unique descriptions. Theinput template is specific to the type of object for which the SIO isinput. For example, if the object is a car, the input template mayinclude fields such as the vehicle identification number, the make,model, accident history, etc. Embodiments may include an SIO database1110 that stores information associated with object's SIOs. In oneembodiment of the invention, information about virtual objects stored inthe SIO database 1110 comprises object description by one or more ofaudio files, text files, photographs, and videos, object historyincluding owners, and stories about the instantiated objects. Also,structured associations are made and recorded between objects and otherobjects in one embodiment and between objects and registered users.Also, in one embodiment, emotions are associated with objects. Also, anobject instantiated and associated with a unique code is composed ofother virtual objects associated with unique instantiation codes andunique descriptions in one embodiment.

In one embodiment, the system further comprises a process enabled by theSIO base module 1104 by which the system associates instantiated virtualobjects in the SIO database 1110 with objects in the real world havingthe same or similar description, periodically tracks information andcircumstances regarding the real-world objects, and updates informationregarding the instantiated virtual objects in the SIO database 1110 withthe information and circumstances in tracking the associated real-worldobjects. Also, in one embodiment, tracking circumstances include notingreal-world objects' geographic position and movement and storing thatinformation associated with the instantiated virtual objects. Also, inone embodiment, tracking circumstances include transactions occurringbetween real-world objects and noting and storing the trackedtransactions between the associated instantiated virtual objects. In oneembodiment, the system further comprises a process of mining dataregarding the position and movement of instantiated virtual objects,processing the data in various ways, and presenting the processed datato registered users. And in one embodiment, the system further comprisesa process of mining data regarding transactions between instantiatedvirtual objects, processing the data in various ways, and presenting thedata to registered users.

In another aspect of the invention a method is provided comprisingexecuting software by a processor from a non-transitory physical mediumat an Internet-connected server having a coupled SIO database 1110,presenting one or more interactive interfaces by the server on a displayscreen of network-connected computerized appliances, storing datadescribing virtual objects by a database in the SIO database 1110 in astructured manner enabled by the software, registering persons usingindividual ones of the Internet-connected computerized appliances asmembers of the system with login and identifying information,instantiating virtual objects in the database by registered members fromthe network-connected computerized appliances, instantiation involving auser proposing through an interactive interface a new virtual object forinstantiation by entering at least a name and a description for the newobject, determining by the system by comparison with stored informationabout virtual objects in the database if the proposed object is in factnew to the system, if the proposed object is in fact new, associating aunique instantiation code with the new object, instantiating the newobject in the SIO database 1110 including the name and description,searching by information criteria for virtual objects in the databasefrom the network-connected computerized appliances, accessinginformation about virtual objects returned in the search process, andedit the information about the virtual objects under particularcircumstances, associating every virtual object instantiated uniquelywith the registered user who first instantiated that object, andassigning privileges in controlling information about objects to theinstantiating registered user.

In one embodiment of the method, information about virtual objectsstored in the SIO database 1110 comprises object description by one ormore of audio files, text files, photographs, and videos, object historyincluding owners, and stories about the instantiated objects. Also,structured associations are made and recorded between objects and otherobjects in one embodiment and between objects and registered users.Also, in one embodiment, emotions are associated with objects. Also, inone embodiment, an object instantiated and associated with a unique codeis composed of other virtual objects associated with uniqueinstantiation codes and unique descriptions. Embodiments may include anSIO template database 1112 that stores input templates related tovarious SIO types. Input templates may contain a number of objectcharacteristics that describe cohorts of similar objects. The SIO inputmodule 1108 may use the object characteristics to identify theappropriate input template for constructing a given SIO. An exampleinput template may be for a movie prop. This input template may includefields the movie the prop was used in, a clip of the scene in the moviein which the prop appears, the actor(s) who handled the prop, the makerof the prop, the prop maker, and the history of the prop since themovie's completion, such as who owns it, how they acquired it, and whereit has been kept. Embodiments may include an SIO user database 1114 thatstores information related to users of the Socrates network 102, such astheir associated user device 118, login credentials, and SIOs they areassociated with. Embodiments may include a cloud 116 that may be a wiredand/or a wireless network. The cloud 116, if wireless, may beimplemented using communication techniques such as Visible LightCommunication (VLC), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN),Infrared (IR) communication, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN),Radio waves, and other communication techniques known in the art. Thecloud 116 may allow ubiquitous access to shared pools of configurablesystem resources and higher-level services that can be rapidlyprovisioned with minimal management effort, often over the Internet, andrely on sharing resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale ina public utility. In contrast, third-party clouds enable organizationsto focus on their core businesses instead of expending resources oncomputer infrastructure and maintenance. Embodiments may include a userdevice 118 such as a computing device, laptop, smartphone, tablet,computer, smart speaker, or I/O devices. I/O devices may be present inthe computing device. Input devices may include but are not limited tokeyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, touchpads, touch mice,multi-touch touchpads and touch mice, microphones, multi-arraymicrophones, drawing tablets, cameras, single-lens reflex cameras(SLRs), digital SLRs (DSLRs), complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS) sensors, accelerometers, infrared optical sensors, pressuresensors, magnetometer sensors, angular rate sensors, depth sensors,proximity sensors, ambient light sensors, gyroscopic sensors, or othersensors. Output devices may include but are not limited to videodisplays, graphical displays, speakers, headphones, inkjet printers,laser printers, or 3D printers. Devices may include but are not limitedto a combination of multiple input or output devices such as MicrosoftKINECT, Nintendo Wii remote, Nintendo WII U GAMEPAD, or Apple iPhone.Some devices allow gesture recognition inputs by combining input andoutput devices. Other devices allow for facial recognition, which may beutilized as an input for different purposes such as authentication orother commands. Some devices provide for voice recognition and inputs,including, but not limited to, Microsoft KINECT, SIRI for iPhone byApple, Google Now, or Google Voice Search. Additional user devices haveboth input and output capabilities, including, but not limited to,haptic feedback devices, touchscreen displays, or multi-touch displays.Touchscreen, multi-touch displays, touchpads, touch mice, or other touchsensing devices may use different technologies to sense touch, includingbut not limited to capacitive, surface capacitive, projected capacitivetouch (PCT), in-cell capacitive, resistive, infrared, waveguide,dispersive signal touch (DST), in-cell optical, surface acoustic wave(SAW), bending wave touch (BWT), or force-based sensing technologies.Some multi-touch devices may allow two or more contact points with thesurface, allowing advanced functionality including, but not limited to,pinch, spread, rotate, scroll, or other gestures. Some touchscreendevices, including, but not limited to, Microsoft PIXELSENSE orMulti-Touch Collaboration Wall, may have larger surfaces, such as on atable-top or on a wall, and may also interact with other electronicdevices. Some I/O devices, display devices, or groups of devices may beaugmented reality devices. An I/O controller may control one or more I/Odevices, such as a keyboard and a pointing device, or a mouse or opticalpen. Furthermore, an I/O device may also contain storage and/or aninstallation medium for the computing device. In some embodiments, thecomputing device may include USB connections (not shown) to receivehandheld USB storage devices. In further embodiments, an I/O device maybe a bridge between the system bus and an external communication bus,e.g., USB, SCSI, FireWire, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fiber Channel, orThunderbolt buses. Embodiments may include some number 1-n of objects120 with SIOs associated with them.

FIG. 12 illustrates the SIO Base Module 1104. The process begins with auser initiating the system at step 1200. It may then be determined ifthe user wants to search existing SIOs at step 1202. If the user electsto search existing SIOs, the SIO search module 1106 may be prompted atstep 1204. It may then be determined if the user wants to create a newor edit an existing SIO at step 1206. If the user elects to create oredit SIOs, the SIO input module 1108 may be prompted at step 1208. Itmay then be determined if the user has additional requests to search,create, or edit an SIO at step 1210. If there are no more user requests,the program ends at step 1212.

FIG. 13 illustrates the SIO Input module 1108. The process begins withreceiving a prompt from the SIO base module 1106 at step 1300. Theobject that is to be associated with an SIO may be identified at step1302. The object may be identified in numerous ways. In one embodiment,the user may provide a written or verbal description of the object or animage of the object. From the information provided by the user, thecharacteristics of the object may be identified at step 1304. Forexample, an image may be provided by the user. Optical characterrecognition may be used to identify a vehicle identification number,make, or model name as a way to identify the object in the image as acar. Alternatively, keywords could be searched for in a writtendescription or a verbal description that has been put throughvoice-to-text software to identify the object. For example, the objectmay be a movie prop, and the description provided may include the term“prop” and a movie title such as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Onceobject characteristics have been identified, the input templateassociated with those object characteristics is retrieved from the SIOtemplate database 1112 at step 1306. The user may then be prompted tofill fields in the input template at step 1308. The user may be promptedin numerous ways. Some fields may include a drop-down menu, such asselecting the make and model of a car. Some fields may have free fillfields that allow the user to provide a text or voice response to aquestion, such as “where was the car purchased?” The informationrequested by the prompt can include anything from personal narratives,stories, conversations, art literature, visual images, and multi-media,among others. A prompt for a food item may be designed to collectsensory information such as “how did it smell?” A prompt for an animalmay be designed to collect biological information, such as “how old isthe animal?” A prompt for an organization may be designed to collectconceptual information, such as “what is the group's mission?” A promptfor a piece of art may be designed to collect imagination information,such as “what story was the artist trying to tell with this piece?” Aprompt for a location may be designed to collect knowledge information,such as “what is the demographic breakdown of the local population?” Aprompt may also be designed to collect extended knowledge, such as “whatabout the location's history led to the demographic breakdown?” Promptsfor fields in the input template may be presented to collectchronological information to construct a timeline of the object'shistory. A prompt may also be designed to collect knowable unknowns,such as “what studies need to be conducted?” A prompt may be designed tocollect intelligence information, such as “what did (answer to theprevious field) teach you about the object 1120?” A prompt may bedesigned to collect situational information, such as who, what, when,where, and why. A prompt may be designed to collect dispersed knowledge,such as “who else witnessed the event?” Some fields in the inputtemplate may have specific sources needed due to asymmetricalinformation. The qualifications of the user inputting information maydetermine which fields in the input template are presented to them. Forexample, if the object 1120 is a corporation, only users who areexecutives with the corporation or users in the financial industry maybe presented with prompts related to information in the corporateearnings report. User identification or data source type may beincorporated with prompts for specific fields in the input template todetermine data credibility. Prompts may be designed to collectmachine-readable data specifically for systematic analysis, machinelearning, and Artificial Intelligence. Prompts for data fields mayinclude steps to verify the data integrity, such as ensuring theaccuracy of the data, mapping database fields from a source database tothe input template, identifying data governance and control, identifyingdata integrity enforcement steps, identifying data traceability, qualityassurance, and control steps. The user input may be received at step1310. The user input may be received in numerous ways. The user maysubmit an image or video clip. Relevant information may be pulled fromthe image or clip with image recognition or optical characterrecognition. For example, the user may submit a car's window sticker,and optical character recognition could identify the year/make/model. Itmay then be determined if the input is acceptable for the current fieldin the input template at step 1312. The acceptability of the inputprovided may be determined in numerous ways. The type of input may bethe determining factor. For example, a field in the template for a movieprop may require a clip from the movie in which the prop appeared. Ifthe input is in text, that would be an unacceptable input. If the userhas provided an unacceptable input, they may be allowed to provide anacceptable input. The user may be allowed to skip certain input fieldsin the template, for example, if they do not have the requestedinformation. It may then be determined if more fields are in theselected input template at step 1314. If there are more fields in theinput template, the process returns to step 1308. If there are no morefields to be filled in the input template, it may be determined if theuser wants to create or edit another SIO at step 1316. If there are moreSIOs to be created or edited, the process returns to step 1302. If thereare no more SIOs to be created or edited, the process returns to the SIObase module 1104 at step 1318.

FIG. 14 illustrates the SIO Template Database 1112. The SIO TemplateDatabase 1112 contains the input templates for different types ofobjects to be associated with an SIO. Each input template has somenumber of object characteristics that may be used to match an inputtemplate with the type of object. For example, the SIO input module mayreceive an initial image from the user. Optical character recognitionmay identify a vehicle identification number in the image and then inferthat the image contains a car or car part and retrieve the car template.The template provides the SIO input module 108 with the fields that theuser needs to fill out. For example, if the system identifies the objectassociated with an SIO is a car, the template directs the SIO inputmodule 108 to collect the current location, purchase history, accidenthistory, modifications, and so on.

The skilled person will understand, again, that the descriptions hereinof various embodiments and implementations are entirely exemplary. Thescope of the invention is limited only by the claims.

1. A system enabling a registered user of a Social Identity of Objects(SIO) database to instantiate and edit characteristics of objects,comprising: an SIO base module adapted to interact with the user ininstantiating and editing objects; an SIO search module; an SIO inputmodule; an SIO database; and an SIO template database; wherein the basemodule enables the user to conduct a search of the SIO database with thesearch module and guides the user in instantiating and editingcharacteristics of objects.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the SIOtemplate database comprises a plurality of templates specificallyassociated with different categories of objects and guides the user in aserial process of filling input fields of the template with informationregarding characteristics of the object.
 3. The system of claim 2wherein the input template, after all fields are filed, enters theinformation associated with the object in the SIO database.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the system is organized as a Socratesdatabase.
 5. A method enabling a registered user of an SIO database toinstantiate and edit characteristics of objects, comprising: initiatingby the registered user an SIO base module adapted to interact with theuser in instantiating and editing objects; interacting with the basemodule by the registered user, conducting a search of the SIO databaseby the registered use with the SIO search module; identifying an objectand characteristics of the object to be edited; selecting by an inputmodule an input template from an SIO template database, that bestmatches characteristics of the identified object; prompting theregistered user to fill out fields in the template; and entering theinformation from the fields in the template into the SIO database,associated with the identified object, after the last field is filled.6. The method of claim 1 wherein the system is organized as a Socratesdatabase.